Tuesday, April 28, 2009

...but it is raining so I will have to wait for it to dry out a bit before I can get a picture taken. Unfortunately, the other projects I have been working on are swaps/round robins so I can't show pictures yet.

Yesterday, I got the first border on a Spring Fling Round Robin 3 project and it will go in the mail today along with a block for a block exchange. I also got started on the little log cabin blocks for the Mini Quilt in a Bag swap. The blocks are about half done and I would love to have the top done today and maybe have it sandwiched to take to craft night at the neighbor's this evening.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

I think it is really much more than halfway. I had to get all those little triangles sewn onto all those squares first. I have all 60 of this group of blocks done and hope to get started on the second 60 yet this evening. It would be great to have the top all done by the end of this weekend. I have several swaps and exchanges to get taken care of next week!

Monday, April 20, 2009

I still have the label to get done today probably but otherwise it is ready to go. I have posted individual photos of the drawing blocks on flickr. I am so very pleased with the results after all my troubles. I can't wait to show it to the kids today.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

Yesterday I got the quilting done on the Fruits of the Spirit quilt. I had been doing all my machine quilting on larger quilts standing up at my sewing table, but since I have been having some problems with my feet and legs I needed to find a way to quilt sitting down. I picked up my little SewEzi table at my sister's house last week so I decided to set it up for my Pfaff and used another small table to help support the quilt. It worked wonderfully! My wrist was a little sore from maneuvering the quilt but my legs, feet and back were very happy!

My only problem was that when I got to quilting with a bit more speed the machine started to try to walk off the table! I have some large c-clamps that I use for my quilt frame so I tried just clamping the table to block the machine and it worked. Later, my husband found me this cute little clamp to use in the future.

I got the binding added last night and started hand-stitching it while watching the boob tube and just got that finished off this morning. I still have lots of little threads to tie off and hide but I am so happy with how this quilt is turning out. I also need to make the label but that will have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to get the kids' signatures and a photo to print on it. I hope to take care of the threads this evening and then tomorrow I will get a picture of the whole quilt and also the individual picture blocks to share with all of you. The label photo will come later this week. I guess the quilt will be done in time to be auctioned off.

Meanwhile, the sun is out today so after I do a bit of grocery shopping I am going to get out and finish pruning the apple trees.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

I am really liking this quilt - in spite of the problems it has been causing me!

#1 - I was hoping for more and better drawings from the kids. So, change of plans - I decided to free piece the fruits of the spirit

#2 - There are nine 'fruits' and only the first 3 are short words. The last three are faithfulness, gentleness and self-control! Got all the words done and then I needed to frame them with something. Decided on dark solids to tone on tones.

#3 - Since I was using 2" finished squares as a background to put everything together I needed the 'words' to end up as even inch measurements. Lost count of the number of times I forgot to add the seam allowances and had to rip and resew! Finally got that done and then laid it out and realized that

#4 - The fabric I had chosen for the squares with the kid's pictures was just not right and I didn't have the right thing so I had to go shopping. Drove the 10-12 miles south to the first fabric shop and

#5 - They didn't have anything that would work just right so I drove the 10-12 miles back north plus another 10-12 to the next shop. Luckily, she had something that would work. Brought it home and got it prewashed and my daughter helped me get the top together. Decided to use some red fabric I had quite a bit of for some borders and since I had the length cut the strips lengthwise. Started putting the first one one and

#6 - The fabric didn't stretch at all lengthwise so I had to rip not once but twice (I stubbornly tried to make it work!) and had to cut strips crosswise and piece them - it did work that way!

There is good news in all this:

I have the binding cut already! There is enough of the border fabric to make most of the back.I was able to use up quite a bit out of my scrap bin (though it just doesn't really look like it).I only had to buy the neutral for the large squares.And best of all - The quilt is turning out way cool!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Here it is:I am really pleased with it so far. I have some 2.5" red strips I am adding to the side and then I will add 'piano keys' on the sides and finish it off with another 2.5" red border around the whole thing. I will probably also use the red for the binding and I have quite a bit of the red so it will be most of the back. I hope to have all the borders done by tomorrow evening and then I can get the appliques onto the large squares and get it sandwiched and quilted. I think I can get it done on time! WooHoo!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Friday, April 10, 2009

I had a great trip, visit-wise but a long trip travel-wise. Monday I drove the five hours to our daughter's home and then we went over to WSU to pick up our son for a little shopping and his birthday dinner. Back to my daughter's to sleep and in the morning a little cuddle and play time with the kids before I headed off to Sandpoint to deliver my mom's Singer 301 to my sister. I also picked up my portable sewing table. Again a good visit but after a delicious breakfast at a new little restaurant near their house I was on the road home again! A total of about 14 hours in the car by myself.

I got two more 'fruits' done yesterday.My goal today is to get the last three done and start laying them out to figure out what else I will do for the quilt. I would love to have the top done this weekend so it is just quilting that is left!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

I looked at a calendar and realized that my first due date for a quilt is April 24 or really a week before that! And I really hadn't started it yet so I figured I had better get to gettin'! This quilt is the one I am doing for a private school's auction and it is the primary class' contribution to the auction. Before spring break the kids were supposed to draw pictures that demonstrate "The Fruits of the Spirit" (Galatians 5). The drawings I have received so far have not inspired me greatly so I decided to 'free-piece' the 9 'fruits'. Then, I can add in what pictures I get (I think they are going to work on it a bit more this week) to make a quilt. Technically I am not free-piecing since I drew out the letters but I just get so confused even with the paper so it is best this way!

Here are the 4 I've done so far:

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

That just leaves 5 more: kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I am going to be heading across the state for the first part of this week to celebrate my boy's 19th birthday but I hope to finish the last five once I get home.

Friday, April 3, 2009

Here are the 21 greens I bought to use in the twin sized quilt. I decided to go with red and green with the neutrals so it will be a Christmas quilt that isn't really Christmas-y and can be left on a bed year-round. I may get a few more cuz then I will have more greens in my stash than I have now but this is enough to do the quilt if I don't.

I have found a possible industrial machine but need to check it out more and do some research before I make a decision. It is in a table and maybe had a stitch regulator but just did a quick look-over today. More on that later.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

I have been working on the wedding quilt I am making for our niece who is getting married in June. I am using this pattern and somehow I miscounted and put too many 'first' corners on the neutral blocks!!! I knew I needed 420 neutral blocks with one red corner so I could add a second corner to 300 of them. Somehow my brain forgot how to count to 4 - as in 4 piles of 100 - and went on to 5! Why would anyone voluntarily sew 100 extra of a block!!?!?!?!? Luckily I had cut enough extra neutral pieces to make a twin sized quilt so I don't need to cut more neutrals but I need more red since now I don't have enough of the little squares to make the second corners.

There is an option on the pattern to make the stars a different color than the rest of the quilt so I might look into that but I am not sure what other color I would use. I could use green to make a Christmas quilt that didn't scream Christmas since I am not using Christmas prints. I could use blues but that would scream Americana which is not my favorite. Dark browns might work. Or I can just make the twin the same as the queen, but that is boring. Any ideas?